Arkansas Delegation Requests Extension for Public Comment Period on Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project
Washington, DC,
January 23, 2015
Arkansas’s Congressional delegation today requested an extension for the public comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project. In a letter sent to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, the delegation requests more time for constituents to share their views and/or concerns, noting that the comment period was announced during the holiday season. “We understand the importance of infrastructure projects, including properly-sited transmission lines, but we also believe that potentially-impacted landowners and citizens must be treated fairly and they must have every opportunity to eliminate or minimize impacts before projects are considered. In short, private property rights must be protected. Accordingly, we request that you provide at least a 60-day extension of the comment period for the Draft EIS and Section 106 process on the Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project,” the letter states. The letter was signed by both of Arkansas’s U.S. Senators, John Boozman (R-AR) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), as well as neighboring Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN). All four Arkansas Congressmen—Rick Crawford (AR-01), French Hill (AR-02), Steve Womack (AR-03) and Bruce Westerman (AR-04)—also signed the letter. Read the letter in its entirety here. About Congressman French Hill J. French Hill, 58, is the 22nd Member of Congress to represent central Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. A ninth generation Arkansan, he was elected on November 4, 2014, and will serve on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services for the 114th Congress. Prior to his Congressional service, Mr. Hill was actively engaged in the Arkansas business community for two decades as a commercial banker and investment manager, and was founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Delta Trust & Banking Corp in Little Rock. Prior to his community banking work in Arkansas, Mr. Hill served as a senior official in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Prior to his Executive Branch Service, from 1982-84, Mr. Hill served on the staff of then-U.S. Senator John Tower (R-TX) as well as on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. Mr. Hill is a magna cum laude graduate in Economics from Vanderbilt University. He is married to the former Martha McKenzie of Dallas, Texas, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth McKenzie Hill, and a son, William Payne Hill. The Hill family resides in Little Rock. |
